1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to automatic gear checking structures and methods and refers more specifically to structure for and the method of placing a master gear and a work gear in tight mesh, rotating the meshed gears through at least one revolution of the work gear, sensing a plurality of parameters of the work gear and master gear as they are rotated in tight mesh and determining deviation of the shape of the work gear from a desired shape thereof in accordance with the sensed parameters.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the past, automatic gear checking structures and methods have sometimes utilized sensing apparatus moved over the surface of a work gear to determine the exact size and/or shape of the gear being checked and have compared the sensed size and/or shape to a desired size and/or shape. Examples of such gear checking structures and methods are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,849,892, 4,276,699, and 4,285,133. Such checks are inherently slow and do not provide the requisite parameters of the work gear in an operating environment. That is, such checks do not provide parameters relating to running the work gear in mesh with another gear.
Also, automatic gear checking structure and apparatus has been provided including structure for loosely meshing a work gear with a master gear so that one flank only of a tooth of the work gear is engaged with a single flank of a tooth of a master gear and the operating parameters of the working gear with respect to the master gear are determined on running the working gear in such loose mesh with the master gear. An example of such a gear checking structure is the Goulden Mikron Type CSF/2, single flank gear tester produced by Goulden Mikron Ltd., Kirkheaton, Huddersfield HD5, OQR, England. Such checking of gears requires the separate checking of both flanks of the teeth of the working gear in separate operations.
Other gear checking structures, such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,405,557, have required the rotation of a master gear at a fixed speed and utilized the angular acceleration of a work gear meshed with the master gear to detect gear tooth profile errors dynamically with the inherent difficulties in maintaining a fixed angular velocity for the master gear and the measurement of minute angular acceleration.
Wherein, a work gear has in the past been run in tight mesh with a master gear and parameters of the rotating meshed gears have been sensed to provide signals which in turn have been utilized to determine the deviation of the shape of the work gear from a desired shape thereof as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,851,398, 4,272,891, and 4,321,753, the apparatus provided and/or the method of checking the work gear has required rotation of the work gear in tight mesh with the master gear through more than one revolution and/or have not sensed the angular rotated position of the tight meshed master and work gear to provide a simple, efficient and economical structure for and method of checking the shape of the work gear.